Abstract: Come learn how the Coast Guard’s reorganization of mission support to the Oregon Coast provided opportunities and avenues to strengthen shoreside engineering command, control, and execution across 336 miles of coastline from Westport WA to Brookings, OR.
In 2022, the US Coast Guard established its newest Base in Astoria, OR. Base Astoria’s Commanding Officer and Executive Officer will discuss the leadership lessons learned and challenges encountered while restructuring mission support along Oregon’s coastline. Historically, mission support activities, to include facility shoreside maintenance, repair, and construction were led at the installation level by an operational commander, for Astoria, this was a career aviator. With the re-organization, the Coast Guard established a Base Commander whose sole focus is mission support and is charged with overseeing and leading the region’s facility engineering, naval engineering, personnel admin, supply, contracting, medical, electronics, and information technology departments. A facet of this change is of particular interest to SAME members, CDR Wimmer and LCDR Becker’s numerous and significant changes to the area’s shoreside maintenance programs as a pair of career Civil Engineers. Specific challenges and leadership milestones overcome by the pair regarding facilities engineering included the following. Developing a method to provide outlying operational units with adequate shoreside facility guidance. Cultivating and generating dec-plate-level by-in for data collection on recurring maintenance completion. Improving communications between deck-plate-level maintainers and outlying units and regional engineering design and construction units. Reinvigorating relationships with area stakeholders to further real property, permitting, and land use initiatives at the installation commander level.
Speakers:
Commander Todd M. Wimmer, USCG Commanding Officer USCG Base Astoria, OR
Commander Todd Wimmer currently serves as the Commanding Officer of Base Astoria responsible for mission support and operational logistics across the 13th District’s Southern Washington & Oregon Region. He recently served as Chief of Facilities at Coast Guard Training Center Petaluma from 2019-2022. Prior to Petaluma, he served as Commanding Officer of Coast Guard Civil Engineering Unit Honolulu from 2016-2019, and as Division Chief for the Shore Infrastructure Logistics Center’s Mission Readiness Product Line in Oakland, California from 2012-2016.
Other assignments include Civil and Construction Project Engineer with Civil Engineering Unit Juneau, Alaska; Facilities Planner and Construction Engineer with Facility Design & Construction Center Atlantic (Norfolk, Virginia) supporting Coast Guard Units across the Eastern United States, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean; and shipboard engineer aboard Coast Guard Cutter ALERT homeported in Astoria, Oregon.
Originally from Cañon City, Colorado; Commander Wimmer graduated from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. He also holds a Masters of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is a licensed Professional Civil Engineer registered with the State of Alaska, and a Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Accredited Professional under the U.S. Green Building Council. Additionally, he is a Department of Homeland Security Level III Acquisition Program Manager and a Society of American Military Engineers Fellow.
Commander Wimmer is married to Ms. Denise Adamic, also of Cañon City, Colorado. They have a newborn daughter Maia, and can be found most weekends out surfing, hiking or outdoors enjoying the beautiful Northwest together.
Lieutenant Commander Steven A. Becker, USCG Executive Officer, USCG Base Astoria, OR
LCDR Steven Becker is the Executive Officer for the Coast Guard’s newest Base in Astoria, Oregon where he oversees the Coast Guard’s execution of mission support roles in the Columbia River area. Commissioning from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in 2011, he began his career as a Weapons Officer onboard the 110’ coastal patrol boat, USCGC ROANOKE ISLAND, in Homer, Alaska where he conducted over 100 law enforcement boardings at sea. Next, he served onboard the 225’ seagoing buoy tender, USCGC ELM, in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina as the Operations Officer where he serviced floating aids to navigation from North Carolina to New York. After 4 years of sea duty, the Coast Guard selected LCDR Becker for the Civil Engineering Advanced Education Program obtaining a Master’s of Science Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.
After graduate school, he served as a Regional Facility Manager and Construction Manager for Coast Guard Civil Engineering Unit Miami, Florida. There, he responded to hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria providing on scene engineering support and damage assessment to countless affected Coast Guard facilities. In 2020, LCDR Becker assumed the duties of Facility Engineer for Coast Guard Base Miami Beach, Florida where he was responsible for overseeing the engineering plant and facility operations across the 11-acre Causeway Island as well as 300 additional acres covering three satellite locations. In his spare time, LCDR Becker achieved his Juris Doctor through the Florida International University College of Law and passed the Florida Bar becoming a licensed Florida attorney in 2020. LCDR Becker is a Texas licensed professional engineer and native of Austin, TX.